Childhood in Liberal Theory: Equality, Difference, and Children’s Rights

Children are systematically treated differently as political and legal subjects due to their assumed weaknesses, incapacities, and particular needs. How does this differential status fit in with the principles of justice that structure our society, law, and morality?

Despite the growth of philosophical research on childhood and children’s rights during the last decades, there has been no systematic study on the moral and political status of children in liberal political theory. Childhood in Liberal Theory fills this gap, and offers a novel look at the concept of ’childhood’ and children’s rights within the tradition of liberal theories of justice. Brando proposes an ambitious deconstruction of the concept of ’childhood’, and an Adaptive model of children’s rights as the most apt way of including children within liberal discourses on justice.

Nicolás Brando, Derby Fellow, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool

Nicolás Brando is a Colombian philosopher working on childhood and children’s rights, with a particular focus on theories of justice, children’s rights, vulnerability, and the capabilities approach. He is the Deputy-Director of the European Children’s Rights Unit and a Derby Fellow at the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool. He was previously a Newton International Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast. He has published widely on the capabilities approach, theories of childhood and children’s rights, education theory, and global justice.